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| PUBLISHED ONLINE APRIL 3, 2020 • VOL. 2, NO. 16 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Stories and photos by Wingate Lassiter unless otherwise noted (click highlighted link to e-mail the editor) |
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second Johnston County CORONAVIRUS death reported as case count rises to 25 Johnston County Public Health has reported the second death of a Johnston County resident from complications associated with the coronavirus. "The individual died today," said the county's statement, issued at 12:15 p.m. today (Friday). "The patient was elderly and had underlying medical conditions. To protect the family's privacy, no further information about this patient will be released." The Health Department said the number of Johnston County cases since the outbreak began has reached 25, while the number of recovered cases here is two. The average age of Johnston's positive cases is 54 --- 52% male and 48% female. Three days ago the official count for Johnston was 16 cases; a week ago it was nine. Here are the numbers reported today (Friday) for Johnston and neighboring Wake County as well as all of North Carolina, the nation, and the world:
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Johnston's school board chooses seven to interview for superintendent vacancy The Johnston County Board of Education met in closed session for about an hour Tuesday evening and agreed on seven candidates for Superintendent of Schools to be interviewed later this month. Those seven are among 31 applicants for the job. Their names, by law, cannot be released to the public at this point. "We chose seven candidates to interview and these interviews will begin on April 14th," Board Chairman Todd Sutton said in an e-mail report to the Sun. "We are still working towards having a superintendent in place by July 1st." Meanwhile, Ben Williams continues to serve as the system's interim superintendent. SCHOOLS DISTRIBUTING ABOUT 13,000 MEALS DAILY  Chief of Staff Dolores Gill reports
that Johnston County Public Schools are handing
out about 13,000 meals each weekday, at no charge,
to students throughout the county while schools
are closed. The system is using school buses and
its employees to deliver the meals to 13 schools,
including Smithfield-Selma High, and 19 additional
drop-off locations.More information on the JCPS website>  THEY'RE
STILL BUILDING HOUSES HERE
LOCAL BUSINESS UPDATE Whose employees are still going to work? Based on a survey of parking lots around town, the usual number of folks are on the job at Johnston Health's hospital and the adjacent Health Department and Mental Health centers. Thank goodness for them! Parking lots at the Johnston County Courthouse are also looking normal as county employees carry out their office duties even as the public is restricted from entering the building. It's the same at the county's Land Use Center and Smithfield Town Hall. Of course, the grocery-store lots are filled these days, and the recent surge of customers has prompted many of those businesses to hire more staff. According to the latest monthly report from the N.C. Division of Employment Security, 96,940 Johnstonians held jobs while 3,749 were unemployed during January --- producing an unemployment rate of 3.7%. Wonder what those numbers will look like for April when all is said and done. LOCAL INDUSTRIES SAY THEY'RE "AT FULL PRODUCTION" Chris Johnson, Johnston County's economic development office, provided the following report to the Sun after checking with local industries this past week: "Airflow (Selma) and AFF-Flanders (Smithfield) are still at full production and still looking for employees," he said. "Their filters are used in government and hospital facilities." Flanders currently has 380 employees at its plant on Wal-Pat Road and is looking for 50 more, Mr. Johnson noted. Johnston's pharmaceutical suppliers are "at full production," he reported. That includes the large Grifols plant at Clayton --- in the news for collaborating with federal agencies to collect plasma from convalescent COVID-19 patients for processing into a hyper-immune globulin that could become a coronavirus treatment. Local food manufacturers --- including Carolina Packers and Stevens Sausage --- are also "at full production," according to Mr. Johnson. CHAMBER DEFERS NEW-MEMBER DUES FOR
BUSINESSES
The Triangle East Chamber of Commerce (formerly the Smithfield-Selma Chamber) is deferring membership dues for new members through June. The reason, explained CEO Mike Mancuso, is "so they can get into our system, build their directory listings, and promote their services to our 580 members and everyone searching the area for services" during the coronavirus crisis. |
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Local governing boards to meet next week, but with general public remotely attending All three local governing boards covered by the Sun will conduct their regular monthly meetings next week, but the formats won't be regular. Johnston County Board of Commissioners will convene at 10 a.m. Monday (April 6) --- not at the Courthouse but in a meeting room inside the shuttered Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield. The meeting will be live-streamed on Johnston County Government's Facebook page> Citizens who want to address the board during "Public Comment" should e-mail their statements by 5 p.m. today (Friday) to paula.woodard@johnstonnc.com> During Monday's session (morning only), commissioners will hear coronavirus updates from Dr. Marilyn Pearson, the county's health director, and EMS Director Kevin Hubbard; receive grant recommendations from Parks, Greenways, and Open Space Coordinator Adrian O'Neal; and be asked to award a contract for almost $5 million to expand the Johnston County Landfill. Here's the official agenda for Monday's meeting posted online> Johnston County Board of Education will meet a week earlier than usual, at 4 p.m. Tuesday (April 7). That meeting will be live-streamed on the school system's website> Here's the link to the official agenda once it's posted online> Smithfield Town Council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday (April 7) at Town Hall, but the public will be barred from attending. Instead, the meeting will be live-streamed on the town's YouTube channel> Citizens who wish to address the council should e-mail their comments by 5 p.m. Monday (April 6) to shannan.parrish@smithfield-nc.com> On the meeting's agenda is the council's review of revised plans for Phase II of the East River Subdivision under construction along Buffalo Road. Phase I, nearing completion, includes 18 new single-family houses (see photo above). The council will also be asked to approve a contract for design of a Splash Pad at Smith-Collins Park and a staff proposal to proceed with production of a Smithfield "Welcome and Informational Booklet." Here's the official agenda for Tuesday's meeting posted online> |
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For volunteer Phyllis Toole, this has been a quilting project that fell in her lap Story by Suzette Rodriguez, Johnston Health From
her home on Brogden Road, Phyllis Toole whips up
lap-sized quilts accessorized with zippers,
pockets, Velcro strips, buttons, and shoestrings
--- all to keep busy the hands of hospitalized
patients with dementia. That she does it all as a
Johnston Health volunteer, and goes out of her way
to ensure the materials are donated, is
remarkable. With
the
help of a fellow volunteer who cuts, sorts, and
assembles, Ms. Toole makes about 40 quilts a
month. All are one-of-a-kinds. They’re given to
patients in the hospitals in Smithfield and
Clayton, and are available to others from the
Volunteer Gift Shops.
"I
don’t
know what happened," she said of the project.
"Something just tugged at my heart." Retired
from
banking, she hadn’t sewn in 25 years. But when the
need came up during a volunteer council meeting,
she raised her hand. That was nearly seven years
ago. The
fidget
quilts she saw for sale online were as much as $50
apiece, and she knew she could do better. With
some tweaks to the design, her quilt ultimately
met the safety and quality standards set by the
hospital. It
also
met a personal need. Because of health issues, Ms.
Toole had not been able to get out and about as
much as she had in prior years. By quilting at
home, she’s still able to volunteer and have an
impact on patients. It
may
be her church, Sardis Baptist, who has the line
best describing her work --- that the "Lord laid
the quilt mission in her lap." On its website, the church
shares details of how the project became a church
ministry, too. Farrah
Nguyen,
coordinator for hospital volunteers in Smithfield,
marvels that Ms.Toole turns out the quilts with so
much attention to detail. "They truly are labors
of love," she said. She
enjoys
the stories, too, that come with the donations ---
like the friend of a Clayton hospital volunteer
who heard about the project and shipped 275 Crown
Royal bags among boxes and boxes of fabric. Ms.
Toole uses the purple bags to make pockets on the
quilts. Leah
Garner,
a nurse manager, said the quilts are a welcome
distraction for patients: "It helps them focus on
an activity, which lowers their risk of getting
out of bed and getting hurt from a fall." "We’re so thankful for our volunteers," she added. "Families appreciate the quilts, and I think they recognize the love that goes into them. |
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 Pink dogwoods have joined the party On a beautiful Thursday in early April, alternating white and pink dogwoods grace two yards at the intersection of Crescent and Maplewood drives in South Smithfield. A few more pictures of this week's bloomings in Smithfield on the FEATURE PAGE> DEATHS & FUNERALS Each week we post links to obituaries about persons who have died during the past week. We monitor the websites of local funeral homes to compile our list, and we welcome links provided by readers to obituaries of persons with Smithfield connections who have died outside our immediate area.... JANA WARD DRIVER, 46 - died April 2 CLAUDIOUS ALBERT (BUD) STALLINGS JR., 77 - died April 1 JOHN ANTHONY (ANDY) WADSWORTH, 67 - died March 31 ROWDY STEVENSON (SHOT) HILL, 70 - died Month 28 |
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THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS  Vines have been cleared from the "Old Bridge Site" beside the Neuse Riverwalk below the west end of Bridge Street. Now you can read the plaque on the stone abutment that was originally built for a covered bridge in the mid-1800s: "This stone structure served as a bridge support before the Neuse River crossing at Smithfield was relocated in the 1920s one block south.... "Before 1907 a covered bridge accommodated crossing at the Bridge Street site. The covered bridge gave way to a new steel bridge opened for use July 30, 1907. It was 422 feet long, and its 19-foot width afforded two-way traffic." By the way, the Riverwalk along the Town Commons Downtown is one public park that remains open for getting some much needed exercise and sunshine these days. |
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